Sony Xperia-Community Review Final Say

Thanks for the fantastic contribution so far. The last round of questions for the Sony Xperia Z user review have been included below.

1. After three weeks of using the phone what specs actually matter to you?

2. Since first hearing about the Sony Xperia Z, have your expectations changed now that you have trialled this?

3. What are the pros and cons for the Xperia Z? We really want to hear about the pros and cons from your perspective

4. If you could summarise your final judgement of the Xperia Z in 25 words or less, what would that be?

Yannick has mentioned this already, but I wanted to say again that the quality of content provided for the Sony Xperia Z CrowdSupport user review by Wanglese, Extreame and Nelly82 is superb. Thank you for your great effort guys

Re: Sony Xperia-Community Review Final Say

Well it has come to an end, but that won’t stop us there, if you have any questions, that need an answer, just ask!

I was very sceptical when I received this handset as I thought that I have used them all, well I was wrong.

This handset has to be one of the best I have ever used, and the differences between the handsets I have used, and the new Telstra Sony Xperia Z are huge, beginning with the screen resolution (sensitiveness, accuracy etc.)

After three weeks of using the phone what specs actually matter to you?

I do not think I have changed my mind much here as the main specs that matter are:

4G network

16GB on-board RAM (internal SD card)

Quad CPU

Good screen

As for what has changed, here are a few that I can think of:

Walkman

Camera

Albums

Voice HD

Sony Companion (PC connect software)

Since first hearing about the Sony Xperia Z, have your expectations changed now that you have trialled this?

I don’t think that my expectations have changed but, I have been educated on just how good this handset is.

The stunning 1080p HD screen is incredible, the battery is pushed to the limit, yet is functional, with features to save power with Stamina mode.

16GB onboard MicroSD card is a must, with the ability to add up to 32GB more, is indeed a necessity.

Telstra 4G network - many times I have found myself using this network, I just don't have enough words to describe just how good it is.

The camera is simply stunning, to see my images in 1080p gorgeous HD is perfect, plus it is also great on the eye for my family.

What are the pros and cons for the Xperia Z? We really want to hear about the pros and cons from your perspective

The cons:

The new Telstra Sony Xperia Z's 5 inch 1080p HD screen size, many people who have seen this handset continue to mention that they would find it difficult to use the handset due to the screen size, yet all of them say they would use a 4.9inch screen, so I personally think that it is just an "I can’t afford that so I will say something bad about it".

Many people will get used to the big HD screen, but I think this handset is not for the younger generation.

The screen size is perfect for anyone who uses this handset for reading, or even tapping, or pinching because you can clearly see the screen, and its resolution is perfect so you hit the mark every single time, without selecting the wrong app icon, because you may have big fingers.

If you class the camera app as being slow to start, this may be a con, yet on the home screen, you can slide the camera app to open, and it will open the camera app, very close to instantly (and take a shot directly if you set it to do so).

Sony adds a great set of headsets to the mix, although I would have loved to see the headset ear peace wire length equal and not have a short left-hand side wire and long right-hand side wire to the ear piece.

The pro's:

The new Telstra Sony Xperia Z's Walkman application is absolutely excellent, with a lot of awesome thrown in, with many sound settings that improve the quality of your music at a personal level, let’s not forget to mention the equalizer, this has to be one of the better ones I have used for a digital media player.

The Album app is very nice indeed, it has the ability to be able to share all your images, video's to the rest of your loved ones with a single tap of the share icon. These services include, Facebook, Twitter, Email, Messaging, Picasa, Notes, Google+, Bluetooth, Gmail, Evernote, Google Drive (If you have it installed) plus many more.

You can throw your images to another device, with the Sony Throw application, show the slideshow, or SensME slideshow, and you also have the usual editing tools such as crop, edit, rotate and details.

The DLNA server allows you to stream all your media files over your network, including all images, video and music.

The FM radio is another great feature, it is very clear, but not so good in tunnels, etc. I like the FM radio, because I have the use for it sometimes, it is a nice change to my selection of music.

The new Telstra Sony Xperia Z smart connect feature is great where if you do connect the unit to anything such as the charging dock, you can add events when it is connected or disconnected, great feature if you want to show some images when you get home.

TrackID is also very useful, I found myself watching a movie and liked a song that was in the movie and recorded a few seconds of it to find out the name of that song, it worked without any issue's, love this feature.

The built-in NeoReader (QR reader) is great if you find yourself with a QR code.

Sony put in some great ideas into this handset that are simply practical and a time saver, like the backup and restore feature, it will backup/restore all your personal data from media files, to system apps and personal apps and data.

Calculator, notes and movie studio are simple, yet very powerful applications, the Calculator is small, simple and easy to use, where the notes app is a bit more feature enhanced where you can add images from the camera, add a map from Google maps, and of course add your freehand/text to the note, best thing is, you can share this note with the above share feature.

Stamina mode is great, I use the handset all day long, so battery life is very important to me. Since enabling Stamina mode, the battery life has increased ~2.5 fold (around 48 to 72 hours) considering how much I use this handset, getting 48 to 72 hours out of a single charge is simply stunning.

Here is the battery log for 6 days from the 17 April 2013 @ 4:14PM to 22 April 2013 @ 4:00AM.

Remember that I use the handset as normal, and most of the time if it is connected to charge, I am transferring data from the MicroSD card.

The Snapdragon Quad core CPU is fantastic, this is simply one of the fastest handsets I have ever used, and here is the proof:

It is nearly 2x faster than anything currently in the benchmark DB, and that in itself explains this handset from a speed point of view.

I broke my HTC one within the first 3 weeks of owning it, with this handset, I am sure I will still have a working handset in 2 years.

If you could summarise your final judgement of the Xperia Z in 25 words or less, what would that be?

Wow, only 25 words or less, ok, let see how I do:

Sony has ripped down the walls and successfully bridging together the technologies within its business to offer the smartest handset out there in 2013.

Thanks for reading

I find myself once again thanking Telstra (and the people involved) for letting me trial this fantastic product, I am always surprised with what is coming next, this is an absolute breakthrough in mobile handset technology.

Re: Sony Xperia-Community Review Final Say

1. After three weeks of using the phone what specs actually matter to you?

Geeze, where do I begin?

I must admit, at the beginning, I wondered how bulky would the phone be, as in how hard to handle single handed.

It's nearly a tablet, and my wondering included "how will it fit in a shirt pocket, and how easy if it going to be to get out of a trouser pocket"

You know how we traditionally use phones, a call comes in, and you want to answer it quickly, single handed like we did with flip phones, and the smaller smartphones.

Well, I found it so easy, and my initial trepidation on the size was unfounded. I didn't need to go out and buy new shirts and pants

The screen is easy to use, and answering and initiating calls single handed is easy.

So in terms of specs, ease of handling,and a nice big screen.

The screen is delightful, and the fonts mean I'm not struggling to read anything.

The "Stamina" mode has helped me, because the Xperia Z is more than a phone for me, it's an everyday tool, as smartphones have become everyday tools for almost everyone. So the speed and responsiveness has been very important, but without sacrificing battery life.

Like Extreame, I like the idea of getting up to 72 hours on a single charge, and since I use this phone almost constantly, the battery life is very important. Caveat though; try running GPS, music, Mapping and web sessions all at once, and you WILL use up the charge. Then again, how many phones allow you to do so many things at once?

Since Extreame has beaten me (AGAIN!), I won't repeat his graphics on the processor, other than to say I agree with him 100%.

2. Since first hearing about the Sony Xperia Z, have your expectations changed now that you have trialled this?

Yes. I defineitely expect this kind of standard in future Smartphone design and usability. I think Sony might have just set the benchmark that I would judge any future phone against.

I now expect ANY smartphone of the future to include NFC, by the way, since I finally got around to trying it. One of my nephews bought an Xperia Z, and brought it around for me to look at -he didn't know I'd already got one and the first thing I did was play around with the NFC comms.

Now this is cool.

With both devices having NFC on, and with a contact open on my screen, all I had to do was put the phones next to each other. The phones vibrated,but since my phone had a contact open, the contact page on my screen "zoomed out", and by pressing the screen, the contact was immediately copied to the "passive" phone.

No screen shots, because pressing the button to get the screenshot stopped the (very short) process.

ONE CAVEAT: The picture I had of the contact was NOT transferred,only the standard data. Not sure why.

So we tried it with pictures and music,and yes, just as simple to transfer. It seems to use Bluetooth to do the actual transfer, but without all the pairing needed.

The following screenshot shows a song playing at the same time as the phone is using NFC to transfer across to the other phone (note the upload arrow on the top left) so, yes, we could screenshot if the data being transferred was large enough for us to do the capture.

And the speed of the transfer? Bluetooth to the max. So quite respectable., and super easy to share things like contacts,media and even calendar entries.

Obviously, as NFC becomes more pervasive, then buying such things as cinema tickets and e-tickets for plane travel will show it'sjust as simple

3. What are the pros and cons for the Xperia Z? We really want to hear about the pros and cons from your perspective

Pros? Weight, apps, responsiveness, the waterproofing for me is a big deal.

The 4G capability and the GPS responsiveness are better than most other devices I've used. The voice recognition is an absolute must have for me, because I've become so used to using it in preference to the keyboard when setting alarms, meetings and sending sms messages.

Cons? OK, if you are running lots of things at once, such as the GPS, music, and browsing, then you will feel the heat on the back of the phone. At first this was a little disconcerting, but then I've never had a smartphone that could do so many things at once, so maybe I'm a bit over cautious. It hasn't failed me yet,and I've been running it flat out, draining the batttery at a rate of knots!

4. If you could summarise your final judgement of the Xperia Z in 25 words or less, what would that be?

Setting a new benchmark of smartphone design, features and capabilities against which later phones will be judged.

Just look at how beautiful the screen is:

More than happy to add more,or answer any questions, or help others with this phone.

And a big THAN YOU to Telstra and especially YANNICK for allowing me to try this phone out and report on it.

__________________

If I've helped in some way, a Kudos would be appreciated.Any opinions I express or advice I give are purely my own, and don't represent Telstra.

Re: Sony Xperia-Community Review Final Say

First I would like to say a big thank you to Yannick and the Telstra CrowdSupport team for choosing me and allowing me to trial the Sony Xpera Z. It has been a great privilage to check out and trial this fantastic device.

1. After three weeks of using the phone what specs actually matter to you?

Big Screen - Great for mobile gaming, Reading or watching a movie

Camera - An awesome camera for a phone. It takes very high quality pictures and videos.

4G Network - Amazing speeds on Telstra's 4G network

Quad CPU

Easy to use Sony PC Companion software

Battery Life using Stamina Mode features

2. Since first hearing about the Sony Xperia Z, have your expectations changed now that you have trialled this?

Definitely. As an IPhone user for many years, I was very skeptical about the new Sony Xperia Z and the Andriod OS. I did have a previous Andriod Tablet which was the first Samsung Galaxy Tab but have not used an Andriod device since then.

The Sony XPeria Z has so many great features and it has won me over The new Jelly Bean OS is great and the response times from when you touch the screen to when an app or widget opens up is almost instantanous. Having the ability to conserve battery life through stamina mode is a feature that I wish my current handset had as.

A lot of my friends and co workers were also a bit skeptical about the handset but after allowing them to try the phone out themselves and seeing first hand what the handset is capable of they are now also converted fans of Sony Xpera Z

3. What are the pros and cons for the Xperia Z? We really want to hear about the pros and cons from your perspective

Pros

Personally, Pros for Sony Xperia Z are:

Stamina Mode - The ability to conserve batterly life

Camera

Ability to run multiple applications similtaniously without the phone slowing down

Walkman

Access to Telstras 4G network

Ease of using the Sony PC companion

Screen size

Cons

I might be sounding a bit biased here, But for me personally there were only a couple of little things I could find

Camera app is a little slow to open up

Handset does heat up when running multiple applications. This might be a little worrying for new Smart phone users

Draining of battery life while playing mobile games or watching moves. Although of course this is to be expected because of the handsets screen size, it is still better than my current handset

4. If you could summarise your final judgement of the Xperia Z in 25 words or less, what would that be?

Sony is back in the game with the new Sony Xperia Z bringing great features that will give everyone a run for their money!

Have I been helpful? Click that Kudos button Found a solution? Then mark the solution in the thread to help others find the answer!

Re: Sony Xperia-Community Review Final Say

Well it has come to an end, but that won’t stop us there, if you have any questions, that need an answer, just ask!

I was very sceptical when I received this handset as I thought that I have used them all, well I was wrong.

This handset has to be one of the best I have ever used, and the differences between the handsets I have used, and the new Telstra Sony Xperia Z are huge, beginning with the screen resolution (sensitiveness, accuracy etc.)

After three weeks of using the phone what specs actually matter to you?

I do not think I have changed my mind much here as the main specs that matter are:

4G network

16GB on-board RAM (internal SD card)

Quad CPU

Good screen

As for what has changed, here are a few that I can think of:

Walkman

Camera

Albums

Voice HD

Sony Companion (PC connect software)

Since first hearing about the Sony Xperia Z, have your expectations changed now that you have trialled this?

I don’t think that my expectations have changed but, I have been educated on just how good this handset is.

The stunning 1080p HD screen is incredible, the battery is pushed to the limit, yet is functional, with features to save power with Stamina mode.

16GB onboard MicroSD card is a must, with the ability to add up to 32GB more, is indeed a necessity.

Telstra 4G network - many times I have found myself using this network, I just don't have enough words to describe just how good it is.

The camera is simply stunning, to see my images in 1080p gorgeous HD is perfect, plus it is also great on the eye for my family.

What are the pros and cons for the Xperia Z? We really want to hear about the pros and cons from your perspective

The cons:

The new Telstra Sony Xperia Z's 5 inch 1080p HD screen size, many people who have seen this handset continue to mention that they would find it difficult to use the handset due to the screen size, yet all of them say they would use a 4.9inch screen, so I personally think that it is just an "I can’t afford that so I will say something bad about it".

Many people will get used to the big HD screen, but I think this handset is not for the younger generation.

The screen size is perfect for anyone who uses this handset for reading, or even tapping, or pinching because you can clearly see the screen, and its resolution is perfect so you hit the mark every single time, without selecting the wrong app icon, because you may have big fingers.

If you class the camera app as being slow to start, this may be a con, yet on the home screen, you can slide the camera app to open, and it will open the camera app, very close to instantly (and take a shot directly if you set it to do so).

Sony adds a great set of headsets to the mix, although I would have loved to see the headset ear peace wire length equal and not have a short left-hand side wire and long right-hand side wire to the ear piece.

The pro's:

The new Telstra Sony Xperia Z's Walkman application is absolutely excellent, with a lot of awesome thrown in, with many sound settings that improve the quality of your music at a personal level, let’s not forget to mention the equalizer, this has to be one of the better ones I have used for a digital media player.

The Album app is very nice indeed, it has the ability to be able to share all your images, video's to the rest of your loved ones with a single tap of the share icon. These services include, Facebook, Twitter, Email, Messaging, Picasa, Notes, Google+, Bluetooth, Gmail, Evernote, Google Drive (If you have it installed) plus many more.

You can throw your images to another device, with the Sony Throw application, show the slideshow, or SensME slideshow, and you also have the usual editing tools such as crop, edit, rotate and details.

The DLNA server allows you to stream all your media files over your network, including all images, video and music.

The FM radio is another great feature, it is very clear, but not so good in tunnels, etc. I like the FM radio, because I have the use for it sometimes, it is a nice change to my selection of music.

The new Telstra Sony Xperia Z smart connect feature is great where if you do connect the unit to anything such as the charging dock, you can add events when it is connected or disconnected, great feature if you want to show some images when you get home.

TrackID is also very useful, I found myself watching a movie and liked a song that was in the movie and recorded a few seconds of it to find out the name of that song, it worked without any issue's, love this feature.

The built-in NeoReader (QR reader) is great if you find yourself with a QR code.

Sony put in some great ideas into this handset that are simply practical and a time saver, like the backup and restore feature, it will backup/restore all your personal data from media files, to system apps and personal apps and data.

Calculator, notes and movie studio are simple, yet very powerful applications, the Calculator is small, simple and easy to use, where the notes app is a bit more feature enhanced where you can add images from the camera, add a map from Google maps, and of course add your freehand/text to the note, best thing is, you can share this note with the above share feature.

Stamina mode is great, I use the handset all day long, so battery life is very important to me. Since enabling Stamina mode, the battery life has increased ~2.5 fold (around 48 to 72 hours) considering how much I use this handset, getting 48 to 72 hours out of a single charge is simply stunning.

Here is the battery log for 6 days from the 17 April 2013 @ 4:14PM to 22 April 2013 @ 4:00AM.

Remember that I use the handset as normal, and most of the time if it is connected to charge, I am transferring data from the MicroSD card.

The Snapdragon Quad core CPU is fantastic, this is simply one of the fastest handsets I have ever used, and here is the proof:

It is nearly 2x faster than anything currently in the benchmark DB, and that in itself explains this handset from a speed point of view.

I broke my HTC one within the first 3 weeks of owning it, with this handset, I am sure I will still have a working handset in 2 years.

If you could summarise your final judgement of the Xperia Z in 25 words or less, what would that be?

Wow, only 25 words or less, ok, let see how I do:

Sony has ripped down the walls and successfully bridging together the technologies within its business to offer the smartest handset out there in 2013.

Thanks for reading

I find myself once again thanking Telstra (and the people involved) for letting me trial this fantastic product, I am always surprised with what is coming next, this is an absolute breakthrough in mobile handset technology.

Re: Sony Xperia-Community Review Final Say

1. After three weeks of using the phone what specs actually matter to you?

Geeze, where do I begin?

I must admit, at the beginning, I wondered how bulky would the phone be, as in how hard to handle single handed.

It's nearly a tablet, and my wondering included "how will it fit in a shirt pocket, and how easy if it going to be to get out of a trouser pocket"

You know how we traditionally use phones, a call comes in, and you want to answer it quickly, single handed like we did with flip phones, and the smaller smartphones.

Well, I found it so easy, and my initial trepidation on the size was unfounded. I didn't need to go out and buy new shirts and pants

The screen is easy to use, and answering and initiating calls single handed is easy.

So in terms of specs, ease of handling,and a nice big screen.

The screen is delightful, and the fonts mean I'm not struggling to read anything.

The "Stamina" mode has helped me, because the Xperia Z is more than a phone for me, it's an everyday tool, as smartphones have become everyday tools for almost everyone. So the speed and responsiveness has been very important, but without sacrificing battery life.

Like Extreame, I like the idea of getting up to 72 hours on a single charge, and since I use this phone almost constantly, the battery life is very important. Caveat though; try running GPS, music, Mapping and web sessions all at once, and you WILL use up the charge. Then again, how many phones allow you to do so many things at once?

Since Extreame has beaten me (AGAIN!), I won't repeat his graphics on the processor, other than to say I agree with him 100%.

2. Since first hearing about the Sony Xperia Z, have your expectations changed now that you have trialled this?

Yes. I defineitely expect this kind of standard in future Smartphone design and usability. I think Sony might have just set the benchmark that I would judge any future phone against.

I now expect ANY smartphone of the future to include NFC, by the way, since I finally got around to trying it. One of my nephews bought an Xperia Z, and brought it around for me to look at -he didn't know I'd already got one and the first thing I did was play around with the NFC comms.

Now this is cool.

With both devices having NFC on, and with a contact open on my screen, all I had to do was put the phones next to each other. The phones vibrated,but since my phone had a contact open, the contact page on my screen "zoomed out", and by pressing the screen, the contact was immediately copied to the "passive" phone.

No screen shots, because pressing the button to get the screenshot stopped the (very short) process.

ONE CAVEAT: The picture I had of the contact was NOT transferred,only the standard data. Not sure why.

So we tried it with pictures and music,and yes, just as simple to transfer. It seems to use Bluetooth to do the actual transfer, but without all the pairing needed.

The following screenshot shows a song playing at the same time as the phone is using NFC to transfer across to the other phone (note the upload arrow on the top left) so, yes, we could screenshot if the data being transferred was large enough for us to do the capture.

And the speed of the transfer? Bluetooth to the max. So quite respectable., and super easy to share things like contacts,media and even calendar entries.

Obviously, as NFC becomes more pervasive, then buying such things as cinema tickets and e-tickets for plane travel will show it'sjust as simple

3. What are the pros and cons for the Xperia Z? We really want to hear about the pros and cons from your perspective

Pros? Weight, apps, responsiveness, the waterproofing for me is a big deal.

The 4G capability and the GPS responsiveness are better than most other devices I've used. The voice recognition is an absolute must have for me, because I've become so used to using it in preference to the keyboard when setting alarms, meetings and sending sms messages.

Cons? OK, if you are running lots of things at once, such as the GPS, music, and browsing, then you will feel the heat on the back of the phone. At first this was a little disconcerting, but then I've never had a smartphone that could do so many things at once, so maybe I'm a bit over cautious. It hasn't failed me yet,and I've been running it flat out, draining the batttery at a rate of knots!

4. If you could summarise your final judgement of the Xperia Z in 25 words or less, what would that be?

Setting a new benchmark of smartphone design, features and capabilities against which later phones will be judged.

Just look at how beautiful the screen is:

More than happy to add more,or answer any questions, or help others with this phone.

And a big THAN YOU to Telstra and especially YANNICK for allowing me to try this phone out and report on it.

__________________

If I've helped in some way, a Kudos would be appreciated.Any opinions I express or advice I give are purely my own, and don't represent Telstra.

Re: Sony Xperia-Community Review Final Say

First I would like to say a big thank you to Yannick and the Telstra CrowdSupport team for choosing me and allowing me to trial the Sony Xpera Z. It has been a great privilage to check out and trial this fantastic device.

1. After three weeks of using the phone what specs actually matter to you?

Big Screen - Great for mobile gaming, Reading or watching a movie

Camera - An awesome camera for a phone. It takes very high quality pictures and videos.

4G Network - Amazing speeds on Telstra's 4G network

Quad CPU

Easy to use Sony PC Companion software

Battery Life using Stamina Mode features

2. Since first hearing about the Sony Xperia Z, have your expectations changed now that you have trialled this?

Definitely. As an IPhone user for many years, I was very skeptical about the new Sony Xperia Z and the Andriod OS. I did have a previous Andriod Tablet which was the first Samsung Galaxy Tab but have not used an Andriod device since then.

The Sony XPeria Z has so many great features and it has won me over The new Jelly Bean OS is great and the response times from when you touch the screen to when an app or widget opens up is almost instantanous. Having the ability to conserve battery life through stamina mode is a feature that I wish my current handset had as.

A lot of my friends and co workers were also a bit skeptical about the handset but after allowing them to try the phone out themselves and seeing first hand what the handset is capable of they are now also converted fans of Sony Xpera Z

3. What are the pros and cons for the Xperia Z? We really want to hear about the pros and cons from your perspective

Pros

Personally, Pros for Sony Xperia Z are:

Stamina Mode - The ability to conserve batterly life

Camera

Ability to run multiple applications similtaniously without the phone slowing down

Walkman

Access to Telstras 4G network

Ease of using the Sony PC companion

Screen size

Cons

I might be sounding a bit biased here, But for me personally there were only a couple of little things I could find

Camera app is a little slow to open up

Handset does heat up when running multiple applications. This might be a little worrying for new Smart phone users

Draining of battery life while playing mobile games or watching moves. Although of course this is to be expected because of the handsets screen size, it is still better than my current handset

4. If you could summarise your final judgement of the Xperia Z in 25 words or less, what would that be?

Sony is back in the game with the new Sony Xperia Z bringing great features that will give everyone a run for their money!

Have I been helpful? Click that Kudos button Found a solution? Then mark the solution in the thread to help others find the answer!